15 Great Ways to Celebrate Halloween at Work

Whether you’re 5 or 35, Halloween is one of the most exciting ‘holiday’s’ of the year. When else is it acceptable to dress up as someone else and waltz into the office, and stuff your face with inexcusable amounts of sweets and chocolate? It’s also a good opportunity for co-workers to have some fun and mingle in the workplace. Celebrations of any kind are said to increase employee morale - they will feel more valued and motivated to work harder.

If you’re in charge of arranging this year’s celebrations, you can choose from the fun but tame options below:

1. Spooky Breakfast

Themed breakfasts are always exciting; whether you are getting catering or making a team-effort and creating delicious treats, this can be an excellent way for your office to spend the morning socialising. Your fried eggs can mimic a spooky eyeball, using ketchup as veins and a black olive as a pupil, and pancakes in the shape of a ghost.

2. Pumpkin Carving Contest

Pumpkin carving can be fun for those that are talented creatively; however, some colleagues will be more of a hazard when it comes to a carving contest. A good idea is to split the office into teams and have different faces in a hat that each team will draw - this could include: a bat, a puking pumpkin, etc. Have your employees work in a team to make the best version in 30 mins and offer the winning team a prize; maybe a paid lunch?

3. Who’s the Best Dressed?

Kudos to the workers who get on the tube dressed in bizarre outfits all for their love of Halloween. To encourage employees to wear their costumes to work for the day, host a costume parade and offer prizes for the following categories: best costume, funniest costume, most sophisticated costume, costume that took the most work to make, scariest costume and most creative costume. Advertise the awards in advance to entice your co-workers. Prizes could include a Starbucks gift-card, paid lunch or an afternoon off.

4. Cubicle Decoration Contest

To spark everyone’s imaginative streak, give each team member an allowance to decorate their cubicle. Whoever has the most creative cubicle gets to win a prize. Think synthetic cobwebs, plastic spiders, and craft pumpkins. For DIY Halloween decoration ideas look on Pinterest.

5. Horror Movie Marathon

What’s more of a treat than taking a few hours away from your desk to watch a movie? This doesn’t have to be compulsory, but you can set up a movie screen on a projector and decorate that area with cob-webs and ghosts and put on a Halloween classic like Hocus Pocus or the Adams Family. Ensure there is plenty of popcorn, sweets, and chocolate to go around.

6. Potluck Lunch

To get everyone into the Halloween spirit, host a potluck lunch and ask all employees to partake. If making your own dish doesn’t go down well, you can opt for pizza and finger food and encourage employees to socialise for an extra-long lunch.

7. Themed Games

Bobbing for apples is a tradition many of your employees will decide to skip, but for those that decide to partake, offer an enticing winning prize. It's also heaps of fun for those who are just watching. Other games include candy counting (counting how many sweets are in the jar).

8. Trick or Treat

Who said that trick or treating is just for children? You can make this exciting in the office. Instead of allowing employees to think of their own tricks, give everyone a list of ‘tame’ tricks that they are allowed to dish out. Everyone must have a surprise treat station on their desk too. It’ll get colleagues walking around and mingling throughout the day.

9. Philanthropic Activities

The importance of a holiday is about giving to someone that needs your help; you can arrange to go to a children’s hospital dressed in costumes offering treats, face-painting and other fun activities. You can also have employees volunteer to work at an animal shelter or a soup kitchen for the day.

10. Cake Sale

In every office, there is bound to be someone who bakes just as well as Mary Berry. Host a cake sale and give all the donations to the companies chosen charity. A little really does go a long way.

11. Themed Music

You can bend the rules a little for the spooktacular holiday and have an hour or two where someone’s Halloween playlist can be played. This can be during the party hours where you host the adventurous games listed above.

12. Pie Baking Contest

Pumpkin pies are traditional to the Halloween season, but can your co-workers get more creative than that? Host a pie baking contest for people that are interested and again offer a desirable prize!

13. Photo-Booth

A good photo-booth will go down a treat. If you don’t have the budget to splurge on a professional one for the day, you can opt for a make-shift photo-booth; ensure you have lots of props including masks, wigs, face-paints and have a designated photographer. Encourage your employees to post on social media with your company hash-tag.

14. Ice-Cream Delivery

Although it’s October, it’s never too cold for ice-cream. Have an ice-cream van turn up at your workplace and let employees choose a desert of their choice.

15. Early Leave

It’s safe to say that all employees would be happy to leave the office early for the day. Whether they have children that want to go trick or treating or want to go and get ready for their own Halloween party, it will go down a storm. If everyone’s workload allows it get them to shut down a few hours early. You’ll be surprised at how productive they will be in the morning.

Halloween celebrations at work are a popular way to mark the occasion and will encourage employee morale and motivation. According to a survey held by Glassdoor: “49% of employees also see work events as a chance to connect with employees in different departments and 43% say it helps connect people across various levels. And of course, most employees (61%) also say that they appreciate the chance to take a break from work.”

Have you celebrated Halloween in the office before? If so, what did the festivities involve? Leave us a comment in the section below to share your thoughts and experiences…